The present invention relates generally to networks of embedded devices and in particular to real-time data processing of data streams transmitted by networks of embedded devices.
The Internet of Things (“IoT”) is the network of physical objects or “things” embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity, which enables these objects to collect and exchange data. The IoT allows objects to be sensed and controlled remotely across existing network infrastructure, creating opportunities for more direct integration between the physical world and computer-based systems, and resulting in improved efficiency, accuracy and economic benefit. Here, each “thing” is uniquely identifiable through its embedded computing system, but is also able to interoperate within the existing Internet infrastructure. These devices collect useful data and then autonomously flow the data between other devices. However, as the number of “things” continue to increase, it has become further time consuming to load the data in real-time data processing, especially when having to access external file storage or databases frequently. Thus, the increase in the number of “things” has resulted in a decrease in the efficiency of real-time data processing.